Summer Solstice
by Midnightexcursion
Summary: People live and die. Being given a second chance was something he never expected. Running from demons, dragons and knight that wanted to best him was beyond imagination. What's a formerly dead kid supposed to do? This story contains spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

Welcome. This is a story that I thought up a while ago but have onnot just published, but here. I hope you enjoy.

 **Note:** I don't own Fairy Tail or my of it characters. Happy loves fish, but not as much as Carla, and that this story is purely for entertainment.

Over 700, almost 800, years ago, the Dragon Civil War began. Dragons lived in their own territories, surrounding the dragon's herd. Humans were livestock, living in little villages, with only fear as their companion, unknowing when they would be sent to slaughter to satisfy their lord. However, one dragon, whose name has been lost to time, was curious, and lived with his humans; of course, the humans were terrified at first, but adjusted and resumed their daily lives. The dragon found out that the only difference between them and their fodder was their strength alone.

This dragon confronted others, some agreed and others disagreed;they bickered, and fought, and killed each other to find out which ideology was just, and before it escalated into a war, the unnamed dragon died of old age. Weissologia led the pro-human forces, while Igneel led the anti-human forces. Humans, with intelligence rivaling dragons, knew that with the war, neither side would protect them, which would eventually lead to extinction. Mages and knights then began to appear. Knights would coat their bodies in armor made from a fallen dragon's scales, and a blade made from demon fangs, while mages would train and alter their bodies to transform pure Ethernano into magic, magic that risked the very mage's life, Lost Arts.

One of these mages, a fire mage, was a famed dragon knight, a squadron of mages and knights that were unparalleled when it came to dragon-slaying. This man was famous for his 'devil flame',a blood red and sky blue flame that was rumored to not only burn the body, bit the mind and soul as well. His strength rivalled that of even Igneel, so the now human lord of Milidan have this man the new name to be passed on, for being a 'dragon in human skin', Dragneel.

Even after 300 years, when that man has been forgotten and 'devil fire' is only a myth, the Dragneel family still proudly carries his name. Dao Dragneel is a descendant of that man, a knight to the lord and the headmaster of Milidan and and its academy, Shiro Jegudiel.

Dao was nicknamed the reaper, for his slanted oynx eyes that seemed to both reflect and absorb the light, that only revealed it's true chestnut color in battle, in which they would bore into one's very soul. His spiky, disheveled hair was midnight black and plastered to his tan skin as he ran. He wasnt wearing his usual knight attire consisting of a dark gray breastplate and gauntlets covering a black long sleeve tunic with long gray pants tucked into black steel boots that reached his knees. All adorned with a white hilted katana in a white sheath hanging off his left side and a abyss black cape reaching his waste, it's stained color from the blood of demons.

Instead, Dao was wearing a black tangtop and cargo pants underneath a gray trenchcoat, abnormal considering a majority of both the male and female populations wore togas (Dao considered them dresses, and no one could tell him otherwise). He liked being a rebel of fashion. Any other day, and he might stop at a bar for the sole purpose of getting in a fight, because 'someone mocked his style', but he was in a rush home, he was going to have a second son.

Yokina, Dao's wife, could have been giving birth at that very moment, today on June 22 322X, and if he missed it, he would not be easily forgiven. Even with her long, silky sakura hair and soft hazel eyes, she could be very violent, and very violent meant dragon war violent. Dao could swear that when his wife was pissed, she could easily kill a dozen dragons.

His house came into view, a small cottage on the outskirts of town, almost hidden within the surrounding forest. The walls are made of wood, but the outside was covered in rocks plastered together with concrete for protection from animals and demons that lurk in the night. There was one large magically reinforced window on the main floor that could be seen, with several smaller windows on the second story, but the most noticeable feature was the humongous cherry tree overshadowing the tiny cottage.

Dao remembered this tree, he grew up in this house after all, his mother always told him that faries hid within its flowers, and that's why at night it would change color from its marvellous pink to the entire rainbow. Maybe that's why he loved Yokina so much, her pink hair made her beautiful, but her personality was like a colorful rainbow, erethal.

Yokina screamed. 'Well, shit. I'm late,' Dao thought. He was so sidetracked recalling his childhood that Yokina would make sure he misses his sons' childhood not to mention miss having other children. He sprinted forward, slamming open the door, and scaring the three, almost four year old Zeref on the couch.

Zeref didn't turn out exactly as planned in Dao's opinion. Zeref had his father's hair color and eye color, but his mother's flat hairstyle and soft eyes, he was like Yokina and Dao where shoved together in one body. He named his son Zeref, meaning demon, because Dao expected his son to be a fierce warrior like himself. Oh…he was soooo wrong. It quickly became apparent that Zeref was more of an intellectual, teaching himself to read at the age of three… nerd.

"Why's mommy screaming," Zeref innocently said. 'Well…shit,' Dao thought. His son was definitely too young and too innocent to know the truth, so he did what any MAN would do, lie.

"W-well, you see, when a mommy and a daddy want to have a child, they make a wish on a stork. That stork flies up to the cloudy heavens to grant their request. The stork has a long journey though, it takes several months for the stork to go to and from the sky, so when when they return to grant the request, they can be quite cranky. And from what I saw outside, your mother is currently fighting off a very cranky stork stuck in the window to your mother's room to get your little brother," Dao said. Good job Dao, lying to children.

"Well why can't I help?' Zeref asked, tilting his head slightly in confusion.

"T-that's because it's a very messy battle, and your mother would hate for you to get hurt. But don't worry, your big strong dad will protect her," Dao replied. Before Zeref could say anything else, Dao bolted up the stairs, desperately wanting to get away from the conversation. He arrived in front of the master bedroom, their room, and open it in time to see his newborn son and wife covered in blood. So he did what any MAN would do, fainted.

Dao woke up several hours later, to a worried Zeref and a very pissed off Yokina.

"Was the crane that strong dad?" Zeref asked. Dao was going to reply, but a sinister looking Yokina cut him off.

"Oh yes, it was a very hard battle, back and forth between two adversaries. Your father came to help, but in the end, it turned out to a battle of wits, and the stork seemed to have more than your poor father," Yokina snickered. Dao went to a nearby corner, a depressing aura surrounding him. It wasn't his fault, his mind was battle oriented, finding stance quirks, analysing battle strategies, and psychoanalysing opponents. IT WASN'T MADE FOR FINDING THE AREA OF A CIRCLE!

"I was kidding. Your father fought bravely and fought off the crane, it just got in a lucky shot while getting away," Yokina chuckled. Why did his wife have to tease him? Probably because he's easy to tease.

"Daddy, I'm glad your awake, my new little brother hasn't been very patient. He's just like you… you could've been twins but he has mommy's hair color. I wish he was my twin," Zeref said. Dao shot to his feet, silently chanting prayers that this child would be a warrior like him. 'Please, please, please let him prefer swords over spears, I hate those pointy things,' Dao thought, but he couldn't help but awe at the tiny creature in his wife's arms that he so desperately wanted to cuddle.

He was adorable in the purest sense of the word. He was wrapped in a light sky blue blanket, so only his tiny round face showed. He had short disheveled locks the same color as the cherry flowers outside of their window, a soft pink, but his wife insisted that it was salmon. His big eyes were next to his tiny nose, but Dao couldn't tell what they looked like, he was asleep.

"What should we name him?" Zeref asked, thinking up dozen of names from fiction books he's read, like Alfonse, Shikimaru, and Erin… maybe not.

"Senshi! We have name him Senshi!" Dao exclaimed. He was absolutely positively that this one would like to fight.

Yokina just sighed, "No. Zeref gets mocked enough for his name, and I will not let you do that to our son again! You named Zeref, so this one's mine! Let's see… Natsu. We'll name him Natsu, after all, it is the first day of summer. IT'S PERFECT!"

Natsu woke up, both of his parents were screaming, and he honestly just wanted to sleep, but when they stopped shouting, and he was in starting to go back to sleep, his father turned his attention towards him.

"You like want to be named Senshi right? Come on Senshi," Dao begged, looking into the abyss like eyes belonging to Natsu. Unfortunately, Natsu got a bad combination of both of their parents' tempers, so he only glared, or as best as his adorable face could.

"That settles it. Natsu obviously likes his name better than Senshi, so his name is Natsu," Yokina said.

A new chapter for the Dragneel family had just begun, let's just say it's a weird one.

 **Author's Note: Yahoo! The prologue is done. I hope you liked it. I would also like to thank my sib for helping me edit this. Thanks TheMethodeToMyMadness. Go ahead and check out one one of Method's stories. I highly recommend them.**


	2. Blood and Ash

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or its characters and this story is purely for enjoyment and not profit.**

 **Year 326X**

Four year old Natsu wasn't exactly the easiest to get along with. Quite the opposite actually.

He couldn't read or write yet, but walked to and from Milidan academy with Zeref everyday. During the day, he would either watch his father train while being taught battle tips, or go to the park in the middle of town and cause trouble with other kids. Even though he was cute, sweet, and kind, he didn't have any friends...because of one reason.

"Hey look, there's little Mr. know-it-all. Where is your brother? Did he finally get tired of your cry baby attitude and decide to stop protecting his older brother?" another kid from the academy taunted after pushing the solitary sibling into an alley. Natsu walked Zeref home to discourage bullies from picking on his brother. Sometimes he'd become sidetracked and wonder off, leaving Zeref to defend for himself when the bullies made there move.

"What, the demon couldn't defend himself? You're not a demon, you are a pathetic insect," a classmate chided. The ever growing group of boys were like a pack of coyotes, tormenting their prey before going for the kill.

Unfortunately, the two boys didn't seem to notice the intense, dark aura behind them that promised death, but Zeref did, and his little brother sending it out in waves.

Continuing, the first boy said," Go on, call for help like the pathetic weakling you are. Maybe your baby brother will be a knight in shining armor." Zeref saw something snap in his brother, oh no.

A demon voice behind the boys made then freeze in terror at its words," _ **Oh ho ho…you seem so convinced that he's a pathetic weakling, but you arent any different are you?**_ " The voice paused, and the two, once confident, now terrifed, boys slowly turned around to see the demon in human form. Natsu was drowning the alley with murderous intent, before it simply vanished.

"I mean every one has there own weaknesses. _**I wonder what yours are.**_ " Natsu continued as his voice changed back into that of demonic nature halfway through the sentence, the evil aura coming back in such force it could kill a saint. He slowly pulled out an axe, shining with lack of use, from behind his back and holding it in his tiny hands, all the while a face splitting smile and malicious eyes glared at his now deemed enemies.

The boys bolted out of the alley as fast as their legs could carrying them to try and hide in the busy streets, with Natsu cursing them and telling them to accept there punishment for their crimes. The distance slowly closed between the boys and Natsu as they turned a corner. However, a shop keeper on said corner noticed his missing merchandise in the hands of a tiny boy and promtly made chase after them.

Little Zeref chased after them, but was slowly falling behind (running wasn't in his dictionary), begging his brother to stop. Then Dao, which had been on patrol toward the outskirts of town, saw his son recking havoc with an axe, and joined the forming parade to show his son the proper way to hold an axe in battle. Dao's subordinates promptly followed the foolish captain. At one point, a demon joined the end of the line because it thought the knights feared it, but it was a pathetic weakling and the parade quickly slayed without so much as slowing down.

The makeshift parade ran throughout the town, under bridges, though alleys, and above rooftops, until little Natsu tripped on the uneven cobblestone and fell on his face. The poor confused was then dragged by his feet home by his father. But not many turned an eye to the spectical, because shortly after the youngest Dragneel learned to walk, he was a walking disaster.

Natsu caused problems wherever he went.

One time Natsu dyed his hair to look like Zeref then confusing passer-bys. Another time, he planted traps throught the school and town, and then there was the fiasco where he fell in the river scaring a shop keeper when he climbed out down stream.

However, the one to top it all was when Natsu planted a color lacrima inside the headmaster's clothing so the color would change when ever his feet would hit the ground. The poor headmaster was a walking rainbow the entire day, and he didn't even notice. Even the most stoical of people laughed at that.

Honestly, Zeref loved his brother with his whole heart. Zeref would always tell Natsu about his day at school, even though Natsu didn't understand half of the material, and Natsu would always try and play the least active games he knew with his brother, but sometimes Natsu's antics were too much.

"I **hate** you Natsu. I don't have any friends because of your stupid "protection" and pranks. They just pick on me more. I-I-I wish you were never **born!** " Zeref yelled to his brother once they arrived home. He was just angry, but he let his emotions get the better of him. Natsu was decimated, he could tell, but he didn't want to apologize. His brother needed to learn not to be so immature. Even the youngest kids knew how to act, but Natsu needed to learn.

Dao and Yokina didn't hear the conversation between the two as they were making dinner.

Natsu didn't speak at dinner at all. Nor was he paying attention to the conversation. It was just the usual "What did you learn at school" and "Did anything interesting happen". Zeref didn't even look at him, the nerve! He did those pranks because all the kids liked them, and he thought Zeref did too! If he didn't like them he could've said something.

The next day Zeref left for school before Natsu woke up. He didn't even say goodbye. So Natsu sat in his room untill he heard his father leaving to train.

He loved to watch his father practice. There was an inexplicable beauty to it, the grace of punches and the transition of kicks seemed to be a hypnotic dance. He wanted his father to teach him soon, he wanted to dance that beatless tune.

Before any true training could start, his mom came with brown package for his father.

It turned out to be a package from the army, sent afrom a village in the far east, practically uninhabitable from the dragon war raging all around. The army actually managed to obtain a dragon seed from Igneel, a lacrima containing a small portion of magic from one of Igneel's attacks. The messenger keep yelling how lucky my father was, how Igneel actually willingly produced the lacrima, to mock the humans.

Dao was supposed to be the fire dragon slayer because his affinity with fire magic was so high compared to even other fire mages. Yokina jumped for joy when she heard the news, but Natsu honestly didn't care, Zeref left for school before they could even make amends.

Natsu's parents left shortly after to insert the lacrimation as soon as possible and then make lunch, but Natsu stayed at the training grounds a moment longer to think (don't be too surprised, he does have a brain).

The blue sky seemed so vaste that it could swallow the world in an instant, it seemed at peace. Wind blew through the trees, and everything was in harmony with each other. Would a small child's life like him really matter in this infinite world?

Natsu shook his head, he didn't like depressing questions, so he walked home for the mac and cheese lunch his mother would have prepared for him. But when he stepped inside, he nearly barfed.

It was a scene straight from the pits of _**hell**_.

His mother was laying in a pool of her own blood, her head missing from her shoulders. Flames were spreading through the room, eminating from the monster standing with his mother's head. His father was driven certifiably insane from the lacrima's sheer power and influence. Natsu was about to run, run very far, but his father ripping flesh from his throat denied him that privilege. He collapsed from the pain coming from the bloody wound.

Dao danced in the blood on the floor as the beginning of wings and horns began to form, skin burning and pealing where they appeared, flames swallowing him from the inside out. As the new appendages began to form, the flames once surrounding his body began to burn through him, his face charring as he laughed.

It was silent soon after, the flames destroyed important organs, causing Dao to crash on the floor with a thud, dead. However, the flames did not disappear, nor slow, they covered the walls, and boiled the blood on the floor, creeping ever closer to Natsu's broken body. It would have been considered a miracle to say that he was alive, if he wasn't in so much pain.

Dao effectively ripped Natsu's vocal cords from his trachea. Blood flooded his lungs, causing him to gasp, heave, and couch to remove even a little of the poisonous red liquid.

An unknown amount of time passed, it felt like hours but very well could have been seconds. Natsu's senses began to fade, no longer feeling the pain that plagued his body, all was numb 'Please, please, please hold out until someone comes. Someone must have noticed our burning house by now, they'll save me. Please save me,' Natsu pleaded to himself, panic seeping into all rational thought.

The flames creeped ever closer, nibbling on his fingers, crawling up his left arm, ever closer to his heart, yet he could not smell his own burning flesh, nor could he feel the pain that would have surely come.

He realized,'Even if someone did come, they would never make it in time, I'm going to die. Mankind, demons wearing a different skin, knew no such thing as heroes, everyone lived for themselves, why would anyone even bother coming for me?'

His vision faded black, colors of the world forgotten, the only reassurance that he was alive was the thumping of his chest, consuming every other sound within the creaking, dying home. But he wanted it to stop, he was so tired, so numb, as if cotton were stuffed between his ears forcing his mind into a white fog.

What was there to live for?…His mother and father were both dead, and his brother loathed his existence. He though back to the the training grounds, so at peace. The world didn't need him, it didn't need a Natsu Dragneel. He had no purpose. He wanted peace.

Finally, the struggling gasps and hammering beat slowed, and slowed, and finally stopped. The world was gone… falling within a endless abyss.

 **Midnight: Sorry everyone, I honestly didn't mean to take so long, I usually read, and this is my first story, so I'm still trying to perfect everything**

 **Dao: Why did I die!? Wasn't I supposed to be a hero!**

 **Midnight: About that...**

 **Dao: Uhhh... Anyway, thank you everyone for following, Midnight was kinda practicing writing so that he could make people cry, but he isn't very good.**

 **Midnigh: Hey! Don't run away! Sorry, gotta run, but I'll see you when I play the next installment!**


End file.
